A New Beginning

Tiny Transplant Patient Goes Home

April 28, 1985|By Valerie Hill-Morgan, Staff Writer

MIAMI — Flapping his chubby arms and squealing excitedly, Derek Tardonia, South Florida`s youngest kidney transplant recipient, said farewell to Jackson Memorial Hospital nurses and doctors as he and his parents and his sister left the hospital and headed to their West Palm Beach home Saturday morning.

As far as Derek`s father, Joe, was concerned, doctors could not have picked a better day to release Derek, who was given a healthy kidney from his mother, Karen, on April 17. Derek turned 17 months old Saturday.

As Derek`s mother pushed him in a wheelchair through the hospital`s exit doors, he waved his arms at his 3 1/2-year-old sister, Brooke.

``Hi Mommy! Hi Derek! Look at Derek!`` Brooke called out.

``We`re excited. We just want to get him home,`` said Joe Tardonia, 28. ``When he`s well enough and Karen`s up to it, we`re all going to go to Disney World.``

``I feel elated,`` said Karen Tardonia, 25. ``It`s hard to believe that my son has my kidney and it`s working. I can`t tell you how excited I am. It`s like no other feeling in the world.``

It will be 10 days, however, before the Tardonia family will be completely reunited. Joe Tardonia, who was exposed to a little boy with chicken pox a week ago, must live in separate quarters for the next 10 days to avoid passing any germs to his son, his wife, and his daughter.

``We can`t take any chances. Derek is very susceptible to the least little thing,`` Joe Tardonia said. ``I`ll either sleep at the office or with some friends in Fort Lauderdale for the next 10 days.``

Tardonia, who said doctors had given him permission to accompany his wife and children home Saturday, said he was exposed to chicken pox after he kissed a friend`s child he was visiting at the hospital.

Derek is a cherub-cheeked redhead who now weighs 24 pounds, but before he underwent the 2 1/2-hour kidney operation April 17, he had been plagued with underdeveloped and failing kidneys and other physical problems since his birth at Hollywood`s Memorial Hospital.

The child had undergone eight operations and spent 200 days at Jackson Memorial before he received his mother`s kidney. Karen Tardonia said he had to be fed through a tube that ran from his nose to his stomach and he needed frequent dialysis treatments.

``It was a very painful and hard experience. There`s just too much to tell,`` Karen Tardonia said wearily.

Doctors have told the boy`s mother she will be able to lead a normal life with one kidney. However, it will take five to six weeks before her single kidney adapts to doing the work once done by two kidneys.

Although Derek`s new kidney will eliminate the need for dialysis and allow him to eat and drink without the food tube, full recovery is still a long way ahead, said Dr. Gaston Zilleruello, a pediatrics nephrologist on the 12-member team that performed Derek`s operation.

Now, the Tardonias will have to begin teaching Derek how to eat and drink on his own, as well as how to talk, Zilleruello said. Because of the food tube he required, he has not used his mouth since birth, his mother said.

``He`s doing fine,`` Zilleruello said Saturday. ``The experiences we`ve had with children under 5 who have had this type of operation have been successful. Children under 1 are considered a risk group.``

Doctors say kidney transplants on patients Derek`s size and age are rare. Of about 70 kidney transplants done at Jackson Memorial each year, only six or seven involve children, according to Dr. George Kyriakides, a transplant surgeon who helped perform Derek`s operation.